ISO/IEC 23005-4:2011 provides syntax and semantics of description schemes and descriptors used to characterize a virtual world object related metadata to provide the interoperability between virtual worlds and/or control a virtual world object in a virtual world by real world devices, which are various types of user interaction devices, including sensors.

ISO/IEC 23005-4:2011 includes an XML Schema, called Virtual World Object Characteristics XSD, for describing an object by considering three main requirements:

• it should be possible to easily create importers/exporters from various VE implementations;
• it should be easy to control an object within a VE; and
• it should be possible to modify a proprietary template (specific to the virtual world) of the object by using data contained in Virtual World Object Characteristics file.

The schema of ISO/IEC 23005-4:2011 deals only with metadata and does not include representations of geometry, sound, scent, animation or texture. To represent the latter, references to media resources are used.